... or connecting poetry with geography. How to get around? You might simply set off from the Brno map and treat yourself to a kind of virtual poetic promenade; equally you might look around via the individual poets; and as a third option via the list of place names.

About the project

In 1936 the well known literary historian Arne Novák posited that in terms of literary importance Brno did not have much to offer. Moreover – he claimed that Brno had no lyric poets. All this apparently because “it lacks the more copious presence and amicable complicity of that most melodic of elements – water”. So, without a proper river, you can’t get decent lyric poetry. Arne Novák died in 1939. Had he been granted another two years, he would hardly have made such a statement. Not that Brno had landed a new and major river, but it did gain a poet. And not just any old poet, a paean unto itself. The poet was Ivan Blatný and the song of praise his Melancholické procházky (Melancholy walks) (1941).
At the very least, from this date on we have to speak of Brno as a poetic city. There is nothing for it, after the publication of Melancholy walks no one may cast aspersions on Brno any more. Blatný showed just how much was slumbering in the setting of this “Moravian Manchester” or humble “Vienna suburb”. With his verse, he addressed the city, and more.
He eulogized it.

What are we aiming to do here? To show what poetic potential is to be found in this city; and the many poets and poetic styles dedicated to Brno and its retreats over the years. The poets who wrote in Czech and German; those intrinsically linked with Brno through their lives and works, as well as those just brushing up against it in passing; authors who have long passed away, as well as those still living here. By using an interactive map, we seek to identify and show these places and link the respective poems to them.

So much for the first phase – on the web. The second phase will go to the sites themselves and set out the verses on inscribed panels; the aim being, that what these places have given to poetry should be returned – with poetic interest – back to them. This phase began on June 23, 2016 by installing the first panel (with the poem of Ivan Blatný) in Brno-Maloměřice.

How to get around? There is a three-tier structure here: places on the map link to the poems they have inspired, and the poems link – for the benefit of those wanting to know more – to the poets, their cameo biographies. You might simply set off from the Brno map and treat yourself to a kind of virtual poetic promenade; equally you might look around via the individual poets; and as a third option via the list of place names.

Rudolf Těsnohlídek

1882 – 1928

Prose writer, poet, dramatist and publicist. Originally from Čáslav, his close links to Brno began in 1907, when after his unfinished studies at the Prague Philosophical Faculty he moved to Mokrá Hora, later to Bílovice nad Svitavou and in 1924 to Brno itself. From 1908 until his voluntary death he worked for the Lidové noviny newspaper, gaining renown as a trial reporter and columnist. He made much use of contemporary Brno situations in his feuilletonistic serial novels (Poseidon /1913-15/, Kolonia Kutejsík /The Kutejsík colony/, 1915-16, Poťóchlencovi příběhové /The tales of the captious/, 1917), including his parody of a utopian novel Vrba zelená (The green willow, 1925, situated in Brno in the year 2924. The Bílovice region became the location of his most famous prose Liška Bystrouška (1921, The Cunning Little Vixen of Leoš Janáček’s opera. Těsnohlídek’s sombre and intimate lyricism was preoccupied by the themes of love and death, while largely devoid of specific locations. Yet in the opening verses of his poem "Na rozloučenou" ("Farewell") he touches on an event through which he left his indelible mark on Brno history: two days before Christmas Eve in 1919, while walking with two friends in the woods between Bílovice and Líšeň, he found and saved the life of a newborn baby (he later referenced the trial with the child’s wayward mother in his piece "Pod vánočním stromem" ("Under the Christmas Tree"; Lidové noviny 9. XI. 1920). Having been through this shocking experience, he initiated – inspired by Copenhagen – the tradition of putting up a ‘Christmas Tree of the Republic’ on Liberty Square in Brno (the first on 13 December 1924), with a charitable collection toward building an orphanage (the Dagmar Children’s Home in Brno-Žabovřesky opened in 1929 and continues to serve its purpose to this day).

The author and the places of his/her poems

The poem and the place

Farewell

A kinsman to the Christmas tree am I,
which on the square I made from cobbles rise.
Like him, this land’s own son, I loved the day
with my hurt heart and whispered pleading sighs,
like him had grown to serve for others’ sake,
till by the grave atoned in light I’ll stand there glowing
a guiltless child once more, till tears come thawing,
from others’ eyes, which I to dry had ached.

I am so lightning-swiped, by fate down-weighed,
that the axe blow will light my sour demise;
I grew for pain though ne’er to hurting swayed.
In holy peace may the trunk moulder, prized!
I can no longer serve. Dead beat and drained
by clouds oppressive, making my roots rent.
Time to go back to ground. My journey spent,
prayers done, taught me by the years sustained.

I thank my love for living at my side,
while I was leaning, in my core slow ailing,
to her a hundred thanks, her gift supplied
in meagre casket placed; forgive the failing
tree fallen by her wayside, forgive me all,
whom I swathed with my shade, chill’s shawl a-weaving.
My time is here, and bids I must be leaving.
Brother of winter sings the last song’s call.

My guise returned will light your feast days, mild,
for a kind reminiscence meekly asking.
God will come to the world and be your child.